tNNEX 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 

IN  MEMORY  OF 
MRS.  VIRGINIA  B.  SPORER 


Christmas  To-Day 


BOOKS  BY  MR.  MABIE 
MY  STUDY  FIRE 

MY    STUDY   FIRE,   SECOND    SE- 
RIES 

UNDER  THE  TREES  AND  ELSE- 
WHERE 

SHORT     STUDIES     IN     LITERA- 
TURE 

ESSAYS    IN    LITERARY    INTER- 
PRETATION 

ESSAYS  ON  NATURE  AND  CUL- 
TURE 

BOOKS  AND  CULTURE 

ESSAYS    ON    WORK    AND    CUL- 
TURE 

LIFE  OF  THE  SPIRIT 
NORSE  STORIES 
WILLIAM  SHAKESPEARE 
WORKS  AND  DAYS 
GREAT  WORD 


Christmas   To-Day 


BY 


HAMILTON  WRIGHT  MABIE 


New  York 

DODD,  MEAD  &  COMPANY 
1908 


COPYRIGHT,  1908 

BY  DOUD,  MEAD  AND  COMPANY 

PUBLISHED  OCTOBER,  1908 


COMPOSITION  AND  ELECTROTYPE  PLATES  BY 
THE  MERRYMOUNT  PRESS,  BOSTON 


. .  .  A  Spirit  still ,  and  bright 
With  something  of  an  angel  light. 


2042028 


CHRISTMAS 
TO-DAT 

IN  this  latitude  Christmas  Eve  Prelude 
often  falls  on  a  still,  cold  night 
that  heightens  the  cheer  of  the 
open  fire.  The  hearth  is  the  very 
heart  of  the  house;  other  things 
may  be  beautiful  in  themselves 
and  in  the  memories  they  keep 
fresh ;  but  the  hearth  radiates  mo- 
tion, colour,  warmth.  The  life  of 
forgotten  summers,  distilled  into 
fibre  and  sap  and  stored  up  in  cells 
that  open  with  petulant  protests 
and  send  tiny  streamers  of  colour 
into  the  genial  blaze,  gives  its  last 
residuum  of  vitality  as  an  offering 
of  the  friendliness  of  Nature  to 
man.  They  are  ungrateful  who  talk 

c:  * 3 


Christmas   To-Day 

Prelude  about  the  enmity  of  Nature;  as 
if  friendship  were  merely  being 
agreeable,  and  not  always  at  heart 
the  loyalty  of  truth-telling.  If  Em- 
erson was  right  in  saying  that  our 
friends  are  those  who  make  us  do 
what  we  can,  Nature  is  the  most 
faithful  and  constant  friend  man 
has  found  on  his  mysterious  jour- 
ney. When  the  fire  sings  its  song 
of  summer  on  the  wintry  hearth  he 
must  be  dull  who  does  not  hear  the 
friendly  note  that  runs  through  it. 
But,  like  all  friends  who  serve  us 
with  their  integrity  as  well  as  warm 
us  with  their  love,  Nature  seems 
at  times  remote  and  unkind.  On 
Christmas  Eve  there  is  often  a 
touch  of  bitterness  in  the  air;  a 

c  2  n 


Christmas   To-Day 

sting  that  seems  to  mock  the  sea-  Prelude 
son's  memories  and  hopes.  The 
stars,  Orion  flaming  in  their  midst 
like  an  "archangel  full-panoplied 
against  a  battle  day,"  sparkle  with 
a  chilling  radiance.  When  one  re- 
calls the  soft  Syrian  air  under  such 
a  sky,  splendidly  isolated  and  re- 
mote, the  sharp  touch  of  winter  is 
like  a  keen-edged  mood  of  doubt 
with  magical  cunningbuilding  crys- 
tals of  exquisite  design  out  of  in- 
animate substances,  but  blighting 
everything  that  grows.  Beyond  the 
seas,  on  such  a  Christmas  Eve,  the 
stars  hang  low  and  burn  with  soft 
and  kindly  radiance;  here  they 
shine  across  immeasurable  gulfs 
of  space  and  seem  as  indifferent  to 
C  3  ] 


Christmas   To-Day 

Prelude  the  little  lights  of  intelligence  with 
which  men  find  their  way  in  the 
world  as  is  the  sun  to  the  glow- 
worm, faintly  luminous  for  a  mo- 
ment and  then  swallowed  up  in 
blackness.  In  the  Syrian  night 
flocks  are  on  the  hillsides  and 
shepherds  keeping  watch  over 
them ;  here  the  living  creature  that 
is  not  sheltered  perishes.  There 
night  broods  over  the  fields  like  a 
bountiful  mother;  here  one  has  the 
sense  of  a  great  absence  rather 
than  a  great  presence.  The  night 
is  not  haunted  by  malignant  pow- 
ers; it  is  cold,  impersonal,  inexor- 
able; freighted  with  the  majesty 
and  loneliness  of  fate,  and  exhaling 
a  remoteness  and  vastness  too  great 


Christmas   To-Day 

to  be  concerned  with  the  little  for-  Prelude 
tunes  of  men.  Is  it  the  stillness  of 
a  dead  faith  or  the  silence  that 
comes  with  expectation,  the  quiet 
that  falls  when  a  great  advent  is 
at  hand  ? 


C 


II 

The  Com-  WE  were  asking  this  question  as 
pany  we  sat  before  the  fire,  conscious  of 
a  rich  and  comforting  warmth  in 
the  heart  of  the  bitter  night.  The 
group  of  faces  upon  which  the  light 
fell  was  set  against  a  background 
of  other  faces  so  hidden  that  they 
seemed  like  memories.  They  were 
of  that  silent  company,  never  ab- 
sent, when  friends  sit  together  and 
talk  of  dear  and  familiar  things, 
of  those  who  have  warmed  them- 
selves before  the  fire  of  life  and 
passed  on  into  the  silence.  The  first 
Christmas  Eve  brought  angels  and 
men  into  a  swift  and  luminous  fel- 
lowship; every  Christmas  Eve,  in 
these  later  times,  brings  together 


Christmas   To-Day 

those  whose  love  for  one  another  The  Corn- 
makes  immortality  credible.  About 
every  group  on  which  the  glow  of 
the  leaping  flame  rests  there  is  a 
larger  company,  invisible  but  un- 
forgotten,  whose  unseen  presence 
is  part  of  every  festival  of  the  heart, 
every  celebration  of  the  commu- 
nion of  the  soul. 

Behind  the  little  company,  indif- 
ferently sombre  or  rich  in  garb,  a 
wall  of  books  rounded  the  circle 
to  include  the  larger  brotherhood 
of  humanity;  the  fellowship  of 
those  who  have  made  the  journey 
and  rest  from  travel.  Each  gene- 
ration cheers  itself  with  the  me- 
mories of  brave  words  and  shining 
deeds,  and  makes  time  and  death 
C  7  ] 


Christmas   To-Day 

The  Com-  tributary  to  the  rising  fortunes  of 
pany         \\fQ  ancj  the  growing  wealth  of 
memory. 


c 


Ill 

As  the  talk  circled  about  the  cen-  The  Spell 
tral  theme  we  were  reminded  that  °J  Obscu- 
some  one  has  said  that  faith  in  im-  n  ^ 
mortality  is  not  a  massive  bridge 
spanning  the  dark  stream  on  im- 
movable arches,  but  a  line  of  step- 
ping-stones disappearing  into  the 
mist  and  darkness,  over  which 
each  man  finds  his  way  alone.  The 
thoughts  that  go  deepest  into  the 
nature  of  things  are  often  of  a  won- 
derful simplicity, as  are  the  natures 
of  men  and  women  whose  spirits 
have  greatness  of  range.  The  sun- 
sets that  are  like  a  sudden  opening 
of  windows  in  heaven  are  com- 
pounded of  light  and  mist ;  the  joys 
of  life  rise  out  of  every-day  rela- 


Christmas   To-Day 

The  Spell  tionships,  and  the  highest  wisdom 
of  Obscu-  js  tne  possession  of  those  whose 
hearts  are  the  hearts  of  children. 
The  complex  imposes  upon  us  by 
the  difficulties  it  seems  to  present 
to  our  intelligence.  Obscure  things 
bring  a  certain  authority  which 
rests  on  our  ignorance,  and  we 
fall  easy  victims  to  the  spell  of  the 
occult  and  mysterious.  To  clothe 
a  commonplace  in  pretentious  lan- 
guage is  to  secure  a  following ;  and 
is  an  old  device  of  those  to  whom 
prophecy  is  a  trade  rather  than  a 
calling.  There  are  always  those 
whose  eyes  are  holden  so  that  they 
cannot  see  the  beauty  and  holiness 
that  wait  in  any  place  where  men 
live,  but  must  go  to  the  ends  of 

10 


Christmas   To-Day 

the  earth  in  a  vain  search  for  that  The  Spell 
which  stands  at  their  doors.  Sir  ofObscu- 
Launfal  leaves  the  Christ  at  his  n  ^ 
gates  when  he  goes  on  the  long 
and  idle  quest, and  finds  his  Master 
only  when  he  has  learned  that  the 
divine  is  always  close  at  hand.  The 
illusion  of  the  remote, complex  and 
obscure  is  the  thinnest  of  veils  to 
those  who  have  once  seen  life  face 
to  face  and  passed  through  the  pro- 
cess to  the  reality. 


c 


IV 

The  Sim- SIMPLE  things  are  incredible  be- 
plicity  of  cause  we  have  lost  the  inward  sim- 
Faith  parity  that  knows  them  by  in- 
stincl:;  because  we  subtly  flatter 
ourselves  when  we  treat  ideas  and 
arts  as  if  they  were  the  possession 
of  a  few  who  speak  a  special  lan- 
guage; because  we  exalt  know- 
ledge above  truth, and  the  methods 
of  art  above  its  substance ;  because 
we  construe!:  a  science  of  political 
economy  and  leave  out  affections, 
passions,  and  imagination ;  because 
we  strive  to  make  religion  philo- 
sophy, morality  a  system  of  rules, 
and  immortality  a  physical  instead 
of  a  spiritual  fa 61.  We  have  turned 
the  search  for  truth  into  a  vast  and 


Christmas   To-Day 

complicated  gymnastic  instead  of  The  Sim- 
an  inspiring  and  life-bringing  climb  P**&ty  °J 
heavenward.  The  Christmas  story 
has  become  incredible  to  many  be- 
cause its  marvellous  simplicity  se- 
parates it  so  far  from  the  elabo- 
rations of  our  intellectual  life.  We 
crave  a  philosophical  formula,  a 
scientific  demonstration,  and  we 
are  offered  a  story  so  simple  that 
we  pass  it  on  to  our  children ;  so 
deeply  and  marvellously  beautiful 
that  we  discard  it  as  fa6l  and  cher- 
ish it  as  poetry.  It  is  another  version 
of  the  old  fable  of  the  gods  coming 
in  disguise  and  being  rejected  be- 
cause of  the  blindness  of  men ;  of 
great  happiness  waiting  at  the  door 
barred  by  the  dullness  of  heart 
C  '3  1 


Christmas   To-Day 

The  Sim-  that  did  not  turn  when  the  guest 
phcity  of  knocked ;  of  the  divine  cast  out  by 

|-i       •  ,  7  J 

men  because  it  wore  the  guise  of 
the  human.  At  the  heart  of  things 
there  is  a  great  simplicity,  as  there 
is  a  beautiful  simplicity  in  noble 
men  and  women.  Most  of  us  are 
entangled  in  the  knowledge  we 
have  so  painfully  piled  up;  we  are 
only  halfway  through  the  process 
of  being  organized.  We  share  the 
crudity  which  is  part  of  an  unfin- 
ished process,  of  a  mass  of  things 
not  yet  put  in  order.  We  are  so  ab- 
sorbed in  elaborate  methods  that 
we  often  lose  sight  of  the  ends  we 
are  striving  to  achieve ;  we  are  put- 
ting tools  and  processes  in  place  of 
art,  scaffoldings  in  place  of  build- 
C  14  ] 


Christmas   To-Day 

ings,  knowledge  in  place  of  truth.  The  Sim- 
We  deal  with  the  vast  materials  plicity  of 
that  have  accumulated  too  much  as  al( 
day  labourers  and  too  little  as  ar- 
chitects ;  we  make  rapid  inventories 
of  brick  and  mortar  instead  of  post- 
poning valuation  until  the  house  is 
finished .  We  are  so  misled  by  mere 
mass  that  we  have  lost  the  sense 
of  structure,  and  count  ourselves 
rich,  not  by  reason  of  what  we  have 
completed,  but  by  the  store  of  ma- 
terials we  have  piled  up.  Xerxes 
made  the  same  mistake  when  he 
counted  his  unorganized  cohorts 
and  the  compact  and  disciplined 
Greek  phalanx  with  the  same  nu- 
merals, and  did  not  understand  that 
he  was  giving  crude  material  the 
value  of  organized  force. 

c  15 : 


V 

Processes  WE  are  so  imposed  upon  by  mass 
&Fmah-  of  material  and  by  the  complexity 
that  comes  with  a  vast  number  of 
separate  objects,  that  we  have  lost 
sight  of  the  fa<5l  that  a  principle 
explains  a  million  phenomena  as 
readily  as  it  explains  a  hundred; 
that  the  end  of  culture  as  of  spirit- 
ual striving  is  that  beautiful  sim- 
plicity which  is  the  test  and  charm 
of  the  highest  natures ;  that  beyond 
the  confusion  of  half  knowledge 
and  incomplete  thinking,  reflected 
in  the  complex  and  obscure  style, 
truth  lies  like  a  limpid  pool  on  the 
mountain  with  a  star  in  its  depths. 
Much  of  the  vocabulary  which 
philosophy  has  imposed  upon  it- 

:  16] 


Christmas   To-Day 

self  and  upon  us  is  a  barbarous  Processes 
professional  jargon  fast  becoming 
as  curious  and  antiquated  as  chain 
armour.  Pedants  have  claimed  pre- 
cedence over  scholars  because  their 
knowledge,  like  the  pedlar's  stock 
in  trade,  was  carried  on  their  backs 
and  could  be  spread  out  and  count- 
ed to  the  last  article ;  and  impostors 
in  religion,  philosophy  and  art  have 
impressed  their  fellows  and  made 
a  living  by  all  manner  of  magical 
tricks.  Many  a  man  has  sat  on  the 
sward  oblivious  of  the  wonder  and 
majesty  of  the  world  about  him, 
and  been  transported  out  of  him- 
self by  the  mechanical  cunning  of 
a  Hindu  magician.  The  words  of 
Christ,  like  the  truth  they  convey, 

c  >T  : 


Christmas   To-Day 

Processes  lie  in  a  region  beyond  philosophy, 
&Fmali-  science,  the  processes  of  education. 
They  express  the  finalities  for 
which  we  strive ;  but  we  are  so  en- 
cumbered with  machinery,  tools, 
and  processes  that  few  of  us  pass 
through  the  methods  and  stages 
of  culture  to  the  lucid  heaven  of 
attainment  in  which  He  lived  and 
the  language  He  spoke.  We  have 
gone  so  far  astray  that  we  have 
made  skepticism,  which  is  by  its 
very  nature  a  passing  mood,  the 
test  of  intellectual  achievement,  in- 
stead of  faith  which  is  the  irradia- 
tion of  character  by  truth. 


C 


VI 

BUT  it  is  idle  to  bring  a  railing  ac-  The 
cusation  against  all  mankind  and  to  Changed 
count  the  difficulty  of  believing  the 
Christmas  story  as  a  deliberate  of- 
fense against  the  spiritual  life  of 
the  race.  Men  do  not  conspire  to- 
gether to  throw  away  their  faiths ; 
they  lose  them  by  the  way  and  re- 
main unconscious  of  their  loss  until 
in  some  crisis  they  put  out  a  hand 
for  help  and  find  the  supports  miss- 
ing. The  atmosphere  of  the  world 
has  changed  since  the  star  shone 
over  Bethlehem  and  the  angels 
sang  in  the  ears  of  men.  The  world 
in  which  Christ  was  born  was  less 
than  a  quarter  of  the  globe ;  three- 
quarters  lay  in  a  shadow  so  deep 

19  D 


Christmas  To-Day 

The          that  they  had  no  existence  even  for 
Changed  the  most  intelligent.  That  shadow 

TTr       f  i 

has  passed ;  the  globe  swings  in  a 
great  burst  of  sunlight ;  Syria  is  a 
province  so  small  and  unimportant 
that  it  is  counted  among  the  least 
profitable  possessions  of  a  decay- 
ing empire ;  its  ancient  language  is 
no  longer  spoken;  the  tide  of  ac- 
tion and  interest  barely  touches  it  in 
these  days  of  tremendous  energies 
directed  to  ends  of  which  Syria  did 
not  dream,  in  parts  of  the  world 
which  did  not  exist  even  for  its 
prophets  and  poets. 

More  than  this,  the  world  itself 
has  shrunk  to  the  dimensions  of  a 
little  star  in  a  universe  of  suns,  and 
on  a  clear  Christmas  Eve  we  look 


Christmas   To-Day 

out  on  a  universe  whose  receding  The 
lights  fade  along  the  illimitable  Lonely 
frontiers  of  creation.  The  old, 
neighbourly,  homelike  earth  on 
which  Christ  was  born  has  become 
an  infinitesimal  part  of  a  universe 
so  vast  that  a  chilling  sense  of  in- 
significance has  overshadowed  the 
sense  of  possession  which  made  the 
heart  glad  and  proud  in  the  old 
days.  Knowledge  has  rolled  in  like 
a  tide  and  many  familiar  landmarks 
have  vanished.  Where  men  once 
warmed  their  hands  before  the  fire 
of  life  and  lived  at  ease,  they  now 
stand  shivering  in  the  loneliness 
of  those  who  have  passed  out  of  a 
home  grown  sweet  with  use  and 
memory  into  a  palace  so  vast  that 

C    21    H 


Ckristmcif   To-Day 

The       they  are  impotent  to  establish  per- 

Lonely  sonal  relations  with  it.  And  there 

World 

are  multitudes  to  whom  even  the 

shelter  of  a  palace  has  been  denied ; 
they  feel  as  if  they  had  been  turned 
out  of  doors,  to  live  henceforth  in 
an  impersonal  and  lonely  sublimity 
as  indifferent  to  their  fortunes  as  is 
the  alp  to  the  chalet  which  nestles 
on  its  slope,  environed  by  inde- 
scribable splendour  and  then  ruth- 
lessly buried  under  an  avalanche. 


C 


vn 

WE  are  like  men  who  have  sud-  Fortune 
denly  come  into  the  possession  of  and 
vast  fortunes  and  are  not  yet  on  an 
comfortable  terms  with  our  pro- 
sperity; we  have  not  yet  learned 
that  while  materials  and  tools  have 
multiplied  in  our  hands  the  inward 
power, the  creative  energy,  remain 
unchanged.  We  have  changed  our 
way  of  living  and  imagine  that  we 
have  changed  our  lives !  The  illu- 
sion of  vastness,  variety  and  com- 
plexity has  confused  us  for  the  mo- 
ment into  the  belief  that  the  ex- 
tension of  our  capital  of  facls  has 
transformed  the  inner  as  well  as 
the  outer  world,  and  that  the  mere 
mass  of  things  has  somehow  low- 

C   *3} 


Christmas   To-Day 

Fortune  ered  the  value  of  the  soul.  It  has 
and  the  been  noticed  that  the  prosperity 
that  builds  the  great  studio  and 
fills  it  with  beautiful  and  expensive 
properties,  often  blurs  the  fertile 
imagination  and  makes  the  firm 
hand  sluggish.  For  it  is  never  a 
question  of  the  size  and  furnishing 
of  the  workroom;  it  is  always  a 
question  of  the  creative  energy  of 
the  painter.  It  is  never  ultimately 
a  question  of  the  beauty  with  which 
the  stage  is  set;  it  is  always  ulti- 
mately a  question  of  the  tempera- 
ment and  genius  of  the  a<5tor.  Rich 
and  elaborate  furnishings  do  not 
change  spiritual  values ;  they  only 
emphasize  the  need  of  energy  and 
simplicity  of  character ;  for  it  is  a 
24 


Christmas   To-Day 

small  matter  whether  the  dressing  Fortune 
of  life  is  meagre  or  splendid,  but  an"- 
it  is  a  great  matter  whether  the 
soul  is  master  of  its  world.  Charles 
Dudley  Warner  somewhere  says 
that  the  charm  of  the  best  English 
society  is  great  simplicity  of  nature 
against  an  opulent  background; 
and  it  has  been  remarked  that  the 
heads  of  states,  whose  public  ap- 
pearances are  made  on  a  splen- 
didly appointed  stage,  out  of  the 
public  view  live  with  great  simpli- 
city. If  this  were  not  so  life  in  such 
stations  would  be  unendurably 
burdensome.  The  essence  of  good 
breeding  is  indifference  to  the  ac- 
cidents of  wealth  and  position ;  it 
is  a  delicate  and  sensitive  recogni- 


Christmas   To-Day 

Fortune  tion  of  essential  values.  Emerson 
and  the  was  one  of  the  finest  gentlemen  of 
his  time  because  he  treated  every 
man  with  the  deference  due  to  an 
immortal  spirit,  and  never  showed 
the  least  curiosity  as  to  the  amount 
of  luggage  he  carried  on  the  jour- 
ney through  the  world.  Fora  host 
of  people  that  journey  has  become 
mainly  a  matter  of  looking  after 
the  luggage ;  they  have  no  time  for 
scenery,  the  arts,  the  vision  of  na- 
ture, beautiful  with  intimations  of 
immortal  things  for  those  who 
have  kept  open  hearts  and  the  joy 
of  the  open  road. 


VIII 

IN  the  days  when  Christ  was  born,  The  Stars 
and  for  many  centuries  later,  men  and  the 
spent  half  their  time  looking  up- 
ward  at  the  invisible  heaven  which 
shone  radiant  to  their  faith,  and 
many  were  so  lost  in  the  heavenly 
vision  that  they  gave  to  the  rap- 
ture of  vision  the  time  due  to  hu- 
man service,  and  forgot  their  du- 
ties in  their  ecstasy.  To-day  we  are 
so  absorbed  in  the  study  of  the 
rare  and  wonderful  things  of  the 
earth,  and  in  the  use  of  the  mys- 
terious forces  that  have  come  to 
our  hands,  that  we  have  almost 
forgotten  the  ancient  splendour  of 
the  heavens,  and  live  and  speak  as 
if  the  glory  that  touched  the  older 

L  27  H 


Christmas   To-Day 

TheStars  world  with  deathless  hope  had 
and  the  gone  out  in  the  chill  morning  of 
Road  fuller  knowledge. 

The  growth  of  the  race  has  never 
been  regular  and  symmetrical; 
leaving  out  of  account  the  uncer- 
tain a6lion  of  the  will  and  the  tra- 
gical downward  tendency  which 
has  so  often  retarded  a  noble  pro- 
gress or  wrecked  a  promising  ci- 
vilization, the  inward  energy  has 
rarely  been  sufficient  to  keep  the 
imagination,  the  intelligence,  and 
the  faculty  for  dealing  with  affairs 
on  a  common  level  of  aclivity.  No 
great  community  has  yet  used  with 
authority  the  various  languages  of 
the  spirit.  The  vitality  of  one  race 
has  gone  into  its  moral  conscious- 

C    28    II 


Christmas   To-Day 

ness,  of  another  into  its  passion  for  The  Stars 
beauty,  of  another  into  its  genius  an 
for  order,  of  another  into  its  power 
of  dealing  with  affairs ;  no  race  has 
yet  grown  into  perfect  strength. 
Those  who  have  seen  the  stars 
have  often  forgotten  the  duties  of 
the  road, and  those  who  have  made 
the  highway  secure  have  negle6l- 
ed  the  stars.  Astronomy  and  road- 
making  have  rarely  gone  hand  in 
hand. 


C  3911 


IX 

Spirit  IN  the  vaster  order  of  things  which 
and  Task  has  taken  the  place  of  the  pocket 
map  of  the  universe  with  which  our 
fathers  were  content,  we  are  in 
danger  of  measuring  the  growth  of 
the  race  by  the  standards  of  the 
nursery  and  reckoning  the  seasons 
of  the  universe  by  the  changes  in 
our  gardens.  The  process  of  edu- 
cation which  we  call  life  has  such 
divine  ends  and  is  of  so  vast  a  scope 
that  it  escapes  the  record  of  our 
little  devices  of  examination  and 
marking.  The  concentration  of 
energy  on  the  work  of  the  hand, 
or  of  the  brain  or  of  the  imagination 
which  makes  a  one-sided  civiliza- 
tion may  ultimately  contribute  to 
C  30] 


Christmas   To-Day 

the  rounded  and  complete  educa-  Spirit 
tion  of  the  race;  as  the  special  em-  and  Task 
phasis  on  mathematics  to-day,  on 
biology  to-morrow,  and  on  Greek 
the   day  after,  contributes   to   a 
well  rounded  education  five  years 
hence. 

Not  only  are  the  thoughts  of  men 
"widened  by  the  process  of  the 
suns,"  but  their  work  in  different 
periods  is  very  largely  prescribed 
for  them,  and  to  hold  them  respon- 
sible for  their  choice  of  tools  and 
materials  is  to  ignore  conditions 
which  they  did  not  make  and  tasks 
which  were  laid  at  their  doors  by 
an  authority  from  which  there  is 
no  appeal.  In  modern  life  the  re- 
alization of  a  rich  and  rounded  hu- 
C  31  I] 


Christmas   To-Day 

Spirit  manity  is  endangered  not  by  the 
and  Task  urgency  of  practical  work,  but  by 
complete  surrender  to  it.  No  man 
can  escape  the  task  set  for  him, 
but  no  man  need  mutilate  his  na- 
ture in  performing  it;  the  spirit  is 
entitled  to  an  eight-hour  day,  and 
if  a  man  works  overtime  and  drains 
into  his  toil  those  spiritual  poten- 
tialities which  belong  not  to  his 
task,  but  to  his  life,  he  cannot 
charge  the  impoverishment  of  his 
spirit  to  the  order  of  things.  The 
task  is  assigned ;  but  each  genera- 
tion and  each  man  decides  in  what 
spirit  and  with  what  regard  for  the 
soul  it  shall  be  performed.  It  is  idle 
to  condemn  modern  men  for  the 
selection  of  practical  work  when 
C  32  U 


Christmas   To-Day 

that  work  confronts  them  on  every  Spirit 
side ;  but  it  is  just  to  condemn  them  an"  Task 
for  a  complete  surrender  to  its  de- 
mands. 


[33 


X 

Bacon's  FORMERLY  men  were  absorbed  in 
Prayer  the  vision  of  heaven ;  now  they  are 
absorbed  in  the  vision  of  the  fruit- 
ful earth.  Science  has  turned  the 
modern  world  into  a  colossal  work- 
shop, and  the  more  sensitive  the 
genius  of  a  race  or  of  a  man  to  the 
tendency  and  movement  of  the 
age,  the  more  irresistible  the  at- 
traclion  of  the  majestic  mechanism 
which  is  building  the  earth.  This 
danger  was  foreseen  by  the  man 
whose  great  mind  led  the  way  to 
the  liberation  of  the  joint  energy 
of  natural  and  human  forces.  In  the 
preface  to  the  earliest  classic  of 
this  movement  which  now  absorbs 
the  modern  world,  Bacon  prays 

C  s*  H 


Christmas   To-Day 

that  "from  the  opening  up  of  the  Bacon's 
pathways  of  the  senses  and  a  fuller  Prayer 
kindling  of  the  natural  light,  there 
may  not  result  in  men's  souls  a 
weakening  of  faith  and  a  blindness 
to  the  divine  mysteries."  This  is 
precisely  what  has  happened ;  loss 
of  faith,  which  is  the  most  hope- 
less kind  of  blindness,  has  fallen 
upon  men  not  because  they  have 
willed  it,  but  because  the  faculty 
has  been  weakened  by  disuse.  The 
will  to  believe  has  given  place  to 
the  will  to  work;  and,  instead  of 
factories  planted  here  and  there 
by  great  streams  or  out  of  sight  in 
convenient  places,  and  a  rational 
division  of  time  and  strength  be- 
tween the  work  of  the  hands  and 
C  35  ] 


Christmas    To. Day 

Bacon's  the  work  of  the  soul,  the  earth  has 
Prayer    become  a  colossal  workshop,  in 

which  men  and  women  live  as  if 

it  were  a  home. 


XI 

WE  are  imposed  upon  not  only  by  The  Illu- 
complexity  of  knowledge,  obscur-  swn  °f 
ity  of  speech  and  the  scale  on  which  ma  l  y 
material  works  are  carried  on,  but 
by  the  age  in  which  we  live.  Its 
atmosphere  enfolds  us  like  the  air 
we  breathe ;  its  thought  penetrates 
our  minds  through  every  form  of 
expression ;  its  gigantic  works  cap- 
tivate or  overwhelm  our  imagina- 
tion; our  education  is  shaped  to 
meet  its  demands  and  fit  us  for  its 
tasks.  It  is  only  by  a  powerful  ef- 
fort of  the  mind  that  we  are  able 
to  separate  ourselves  from  it,  and 
look  at  it  in  the  perspective  of  his- 
tory. It  wears  the  air  and  exer- 
cises the  authority  of  a  finality ;  and 

£37  -\ 


Christmas  To-Day 

The  Illu-  yet  it  is  only  a  phase  of  the  unfold- 
swn  of  jng  of  tne  human  spirit,  a  stage  in 
the  experience  of  the  race.  Two 
hundred  years  hence  it  will  seem 
as  remote  and  unreal  as  the  feudal 
age  seems  to  us ;  and  its  standards 
and  ideals  will  have  become  as 
purely  historic  as  those  of  the  men 
who  wore  chain  armour  and  poured 
Greek  fire  on  the  daring  assailants 
who  swung  catapults  against  bas- 
tioned  walls  and  braved  molten 
lead  as  they  swam  across  shallow 
moats.  The  present  is  as  real  as  was 
the  past,  and  as  fleeting.  It  is  not  a 
mere  dream,  a  momentary  com- 
bination of  forms  and  colours  and 
figures  made  by  a  turn  of  the 
kaleidoscope:  it  is  a6lual,  and  our 
C  38  1 


Christmas   To-Day 

relation  to  it  is  decisive  for  us ;  but  The  Illu- 
it  is  not  a  finality.  We  must  deal  slon  °J 
with  it  as  if  the  whole  of  life  were  Fmallty 
in  it,  but  we  must  resist  the  illusion 
of  completeness.  It  is  a  fragment  of 
a  fragment.  It  is  not  even  a  rounded 
period ;  it  is  a  year  in  a  decade,  and 
there  are  ten  decades  in  a  century, 
and  a  century  is  but  a  chapter  in 
the  story.  It  is  a  small  matter 
whether  to-day  believes  or  rejects 
the  Christmas  story :  the  real  ques- 
tion is  whether  that  story  is  credi- 
ble, not  to  an  age,  but  to  the  hu- 
man spirit  when  its  vision  is  clear- 
est and  most  dire6l. 


C  39} 


XII 

The  Au-   THE  beautiful  story,  which    the 
thonty  of  world  loves  even  in  its  most  skep- 

e     x~     tical  moments,  curiously  relates  it- 
pert 

self  to  the  highest  moods  of  the 

spirit,  and  its  symbolism  has  an 
interior  and  convincing  relation 
to  the  aspirations  and  hopes  of 
men.  One  determining  element  in 
the  discovery  of  spiritual  and  moral 
truth  is  strangely  overlooked  in 
our  processes  of  investigation,  and 
that  is  purity  of  life  and  harmony 
with  its  invisible  order.  In  every 
other  field  of  knowledge  we  de- 
mand the  most  sensitive  and  ac- 
curate instruments  of  observation. 
The  appliances  which  equip  our  la- 
boratories are  made  with  the  nicest 
[  40  ] 


Christmas   To-Day 

art  and  kept  with  the  most  pains-  The  Au- 
taking  care.  Mechanism  of  exquis-  thonty  of 

ite  delicacy  of  construction  regis-     ie     x~ 

pert 
ters  the  faintest  perturbation  of 

earth  or  air;  microscopes  of  the 
highest  power  reenforce  the  eye; 
telescopes,  planted  where  vibration 
is  at  the  minimum  and  clarity  of 
air  at  the  maximum,  record  the 
movements  of  stars  on  the  far 
boundaries  of  space  and  analyze 
the  fires  that  burn  in  the  suns ;  the 
authority  of  the  observer  depends 
on  the  perfection  of  his  vision;  one 
of  the  foremost  astronomers  of  the 
time  owes  his  eminence  to  his  ex- 
traordinary power  of  sight;  phy- 
sicians build  great  reputations  on 
the  intelligence  which  resides  in 


Christmas   To-Day 

The  Au-  their  finger  tips  and  the  acuteness 
thonty  of  of  tneir  faculty  of  hearing.  In  all 
other  fields  of  knowledge  we  in- 
sist on  special  qualifications  and 
peculiar  gifts,  and  insist  that  the  ex- 
pert shall  keep  the  organs  he  uses 
in  the  most  perfect  condition.  If  he 
violates  the  laws  of  health  and  his 
hand  loses  its  steadiness,  his  eye 
its  clear-sighted  and  far-sighted 
vision,  his  ear  its  acuteness,  we  set 
him  aside  as  we  set  aside  the  in- 
strument or  mechanism  that  has 
lost  its  perfect  adjustment.  When 
an  observer  falls  into  this  condition 
his  authority  departs  and  he  no 
longer  counts  among  the  instru- 
ments of  research. 

[42    ] 


XIII 

WHEN  it  comes  to  the  world  of  spir-  Who  are 
itual  knowledge,  however,  where  ™  EX~ 
the  most  delicate  and  sensitive  in-  Pe 
struments  of  observation  are  re- 
quired, we  forget  the  tests  which 
science  has  taught  us  and  we  in 
turn  apply  to  science,  and  listen  to 
the  reports  of  any  man  or  woman 
who  lays  claim  to  that  gift  of  pro- 
phecy, which  is  the  knowledge  of 
invisible  things,  without  looking  at 
their  credentials.  The  man  in  the 
street  does  not  assume  to  know 
astronomy  and  if  he  did  we  should 
give  him  small  shrift  of  attention ; 
but  when  the  same  man  begins  to 
speak  of  things  which  involve  rare 
qualities  of  mind  and  character  we 
[43  ] 


Christmas   To-Day 

Who  are  listen  as  to  an  oracle.  Spiritual 
the  Ex-  things  are  spiritually  discerned; 
per  s .  men  an(j  women  of  spiritual  genius 

and  of  moral  achievements  alone 
speak  with  authority  on  these  great 
matters.  The  faculty  of  spiritual 
observation  rests  primarily  on  har- 
mony with  those  laws  of  health 
which  are  the  expression  of  right 
relations  to  the  universe.  The  man 
who  violates  these  laws,  whatever 
his  gifts  of  mind  may  be,  is  as 
little  entitled  to  credence  when 
he  speaks  of  spiritual  things  as  is 
the  astronomer  when  his  sight  has 
failed  or  the  physician  when  his 
hearing  has  become  dull.  The  only 
expert  in  the  knowledge  of  the 
spiritual  order  is  the  man  who  has 
C  44  J 


Christmas   To-Day 

kept  his  faculty  of  observation  in  Who  are 
the  highest  condition ;  but  we  take  t"e  Ex- 
our  views  of  life  from  moral  in-  ?e 
valids,  from  the  morally  insane, 
from  those  whose  hands  are  in- 
capable of  steadiness,  whose  sight 
is  a  half  blindness,  and  whose  hear- 
ing is  a  partial  deafness. 

There  are  scores  of  books  in 
our  libraries  which  assume  to  re- 
veal the  invisible  order  of  life  to  us, 
to  interpret  that  life  and  to  put  the 
key  to  the  mystery  in  our  hands, 
which  are  mere  transcriptions  of 
temperament,  reflections  of  moods, 
revelations  of  abnormal  individual 
experience;  and  we  accept  these 
purely  personal  reports  of  moral 
and  spiritual  phenomena  as  if  they 
45 


Christmas   To-Day 

Who  are  were  authoritative  reflections  of 
the  Ex-  th^  vast  order  which  reveals  it- 
«*  self  only  to  the  sane,  the  humble, 

the  pure  in  heart.  The  work  of  a 
diseased  man  of  genius  often  pos- 
sesses the  fascination  which  re- 
sides in  pathology,  and  often  im- 
parts the  joy  of  art;  but  it  is  a 
personal  memorandum  and  not  a 
record  of  universal  truth.  The  ex- 
altation of  personality,  which  is  one 
of  the  great  notes  of  modern  as 
contrasted  with  ancient  literature, 
and  the  immense  emphasis  on  the 
authority  of  individuality  in  a  de- 
mocratic society,  have  given  us  a 
vast,  rich  literature  which  is  of  the 
highest  importance  as  a  disclosure 
of  what  is  in  man,  but  some  of 


Christmas   To-Day 

which  has  no  authority  as  a  reve-  Who  are 
lation  of  what  life  is  in  its  fullness,  *«*  Ex- 
nor  of  man  in  the  highest  reaches  Per  s' 
of  his  nature.  A  man  of  genius 
who  is  insane  is  vastly  more  in- 
teresting than  a  commonplace  lu- 
natic, but  they  are  both  mad ;  and 
the  ravings  and  illusions  of  an  en- 
tire asylum  do  not  count  against 
the  word  of  one  sane  man. 


C47 


XIV 

The  Dif-  Morality  in  the  fundamental  sense 
fusion  of  is  not  a  social  convention,  but  an 
Disease  expression  of  structural  design; 
Mr.  John  Morley  has  well  said  that 
it  is  not  in  the  order  of  things,  it  is 
the  order  of  things.  To  get  out  of 
harmony  with  it  is  to  get  out  of 
touch  with  life  as  a  whole,  out  of 
adjustment  to  it.  And  this  means 
inability  to  see  things  clearly  and 
as  a  whole.  Every  violation  of  the 
laws  of  life  develops  a  point  of  self- 
consciousness,  and  self-conscious- 
ness blurs  the  mirror  which  the 
well-balanced  and  healthful  soul 
holds  up  to  nature.  Men  of  genius 
have  become  sometimes  the  viclims 
of  this  disease  so  completely  that 
C  48  ] 


Christmas   To-Day 

when  they  looked  out  on  the  world  The  Dif- 
they  saw  only  reflections  of  them-  fusion  oj 
selves.  Now,  the  prime  character- 
istic  of  a  great  spiritual  observer 
is  freedom  from  excessive  self- 
consciousness  ;  ability  to  see  things 
in  their  universal  rather  than  in 
their  personal  relations.  Charm  or 
power  of  statement  often  deludes 
us  into  accepting  the  form  of  truth 
for  its  substance,  and  genius  over- 
powers us  by  the  splendour  with 
which  it  invests  a  distorted  vision, 
a  half  truth,  a  destructive  false- 
hood. The  fundamental  facl  that 
moral  disease,  working  a  thousand 
subtle  disorders  of  the  faculties, has 
dulled  or  distorted  the  power  of 
spiritual  observation  has  often  been 
C  49  3 


Christmas   To-Day 

The  Dif-  insisted  upon  by  religious  teachers, 
fusion  of  but  has  never  been  accepted  as  a 
determining  fa 61  in  the  problem  of 
knowledge  and  of  faith.  We  do  not 
see  things  as  they  are  because  our 
vision  is  dimmed ;  we  do  not  see  the 
highest  things  clearly  because  our 
sight  is  not  powerful  enough.  This 
is  a  simple  matter  of  psychology; 
its  causes  are  neither  remote  nor 
mysterious;  they  reside  in  abuses 
of  the  faculties  and  sins  of  the  body, 
committed  generation  after  gen- 
eration and  creating  in  the  end 
a  vast  diffusion  of  disease,  so  that 
few  men  are  entirely  normal  or. 
completely  sane. 


C  50] 


XV 

THE  plain  fa6l  is  that  society  is  The  Root 
skeptical  of  the  highest  things  be-  of  Skepti- 
cause  its  experience  has  so  little  in  clsm 
common  with  them.  It  does  not  be- 
lieve because  it  is  not  good  enough 
to  believe ;  it  does  not  see  because 
it  has  misused  its  organs  of  sight; 
it  does  not  hear  because  it  has 
dulled  its  sense  of  hearing.  The 
highest  hopes  are  incredible  to  it 
because  it  is  unworthy  of  them.  It 
is  so  far  removed  from  the  spiritand 
works  of  the  Christ  that  it  doubts 
whether  such  spiritual  achieve- 
ments exist  outside  the  imagina- 
tions of  saints ;  forgetting  that  the 
inspirations  of  the  saints  have  their 
source  in  these  sublime  facls,  and 
L  51  3 


Christmas   To-Day 

The  Root  that  in  its  greatest  creations  the 
oj  Skepti-  imagination  always  takes  its  flight 

/"*7  C'W7 

from  the  solid  ground  of  reality. 
Over  the  face  of  the  world  lies  a 
strange  mist,  bred  by  the  lawless- 
ness, sins,  perversities  of  men, 
through  which  many  radiant  stars 
are  invisible  and  in  which  many 
things  appear  out  of  focus,  dis- 
torted, misshapen ;  so  that  what  we 
call  progress  is  not  so  much  recti- 
fication of  knowledge  by  discovery 
of  truth,  as  purification  of  know- 
ledge by  character  and  correction 
of  the  fancies  of  disease  by  the  clear 
vision  of  health.  The  redemption 
of  society  is  an  intellectual  quite 
as  much  as  a  moral  process,  and 
the  end  of  it  is  the  restoration  of 

52 : 


Christmas   To- Day 

the  race  to  health.  Dr.  Johnson  The  Root 
declared  that  a  sick  man  is  a  scoun-  °J  Skepti- 
drel;  he  would  have  been  nearer  clsn 
the  truth  if  he  had  said  that  no  sick 
man  sees  things  as  they  are  and 
as  a  whole. 


I  53 


XVI 

The  Air  THE  world  is  so  much  a  hospital 
of  the  that  even  those  who  are  well  are  af- 
Hospital  fe6led  by  the  atmosphere  in  which 

they  live.  Among  so  many  semi- 
blind  people  they  often  doubt  their 
own  sight,  and  question  their  own 
sanity  among  so  many  who  are  not 
wholly  sane.  They  cannot  escape 
the  infection  of  an  air  breathed  by 
generations  of  sick  folk,  and  their 
courage  is  lowered  by  the  fears 
which  overshadow  their  neigh- 
bours. Even  when  they  become 
ministering  spirits  they  are  so  ex- 
hausted by  the  drain  on  their  spirit- 
ual vitality  that  they  lose  the  over- 
flowing joy  of  health  and  its 
boundless  confidence  in  the  good- 
C  54  H 


Christmas   To-Day 

ness  at  the  heart  of  the  world.  The  Air 
From  time  to  time  men  and  women  °f  the 
of  spiritual  genius  appear  who  are  1:iosPltal' 
not  imposed  upon  by  the  mere  pro- 
cesses of  thought,  the  sounding 
verbiage  of  knowledge,  the  false 
witness  of  the  blind  or  the  half 
blind,  the  illusion  of  the  finality 
of  the  age ;  who  look  through  the 
mist  and  see  the  sublime  order 
moving  to  its  appointed  ends  with 
the  majesty  of  great  stars  set  in 
their  places  by  omnipotence.  When 
these  prophets,  poets,  teachers 
appear  faith  comes  stealing  back 
to  the  channels  that  had  become 
hard  and  dry,  and  the  barren  land 
begins  to  sing  once  more.  To  such 
as  these,  who  have  the  pure  heart, 

c  55 : 


Christmas   To-Day 

The  Air  the  obedient  will,  the  mind  of  the 
of  the  child,  the  highest  things  are  not 
OSPL  only  credible:  they  are  inevitable 
and  unescapable.  And  these  men 
and  women  are  the  spiritual  ex- 
perts; the  only  observers  who 
speak  with  the  authority  of  eye- 
witnesses. Against  their  witness 
the  testimony  of  the  sick,  the  deaf, 
the  blind  has  no  weight ;  it  is  mov- 
ing, pathetic,  freighted  with  the 
pathos  of  suffering ;  but  its  value 
is  personal,  not  universal. 


XVII 

THE  finer  the  nature,  the  more  Know- 
credible  become  the  highest  hopes  *td 

c  c  vu  i  j        Character 

01  men ;  faith  rests  on  knowledge, 

but  on  the  knowledge  of  the  spir- 
itual expert.  The  vision  of  divine 
things  is  not  an  emotional  ecstasy ; 
it  is  the  clear,  penetrating  percep- 
tion of  the  pure  in  heart.  It  is  not 
an  easy  doctrine  that  knowledge 
is  a  matter  of  character,  and  it  is 
often  dismissed  with  contemptuous 
derision ;  but  it  remains  true  that 
the  reach,  scope,  and  authority  of 
a  man's  work  are  conditioned  on 
the  man's  character,  and  that  no 
radiancy  of  genius  or  skill  of  hand 
can  conceal  the  limitations  of  vision 
which  have  their  root  in  limitations 
C  57  3 


Christmas   To-Day 

Know-      of  character.  Qualifications  of  the 

ledge  and  work  of  highest  rank  are  inevita- 
Charatter  of  ^ 


explanations  are  made  which  miss 
the  truth  because  it  is  not  quite 
professional  to  recognize  the  force 
of  distinctively  moral  conditions. 
Such  matters  are  supposed  to  be- 
long wholly  to  religion,  and  art 
and  religion  for  the  moment  are 
hardly  on  speaking  terms.  Neither 
understands  the  other,  and  each 
has  its  own  peculiar  form  of  bigo- 
try, its  own  special  narrowness. 


C  58 


XVIII 

THE  chaos  of  modern  life,  so  far  The 
as  that  vital  unity  which  makes  a  Modern 
creative  energy  of  all  the  forces 
of  humanity  is  concerned,  is  easily 
explicable  when  one  remembers 
that  religion,  science,  and  art — the 
trinity  of  faith,  knowledge,  and 
beauty  in  whose  cooperation  the 
wholeness  and  happiness  of  men 
rests — come  together  only  on  the 
most  formal  occasions  and  with  a 
circumspection  which  shows  deep- 
going  suspicion.  Religion  has  an  un- 
easy feeling  that  science  is  stealth- 
ily trying  to  undermine  the  foun- 
dations of  her  temple ;  and  that  art 
is  as  frail  as  she  is  beautiful.  Sci- 
ence affecls  to  believe  that  religion 
C  59  ] 


Christmas   To-Day 

The         is  a  blind  statue  from  whom  the 
Modern  music  that  made  men  strong  in  the 

C'li 

morning  of  the  world  has  departed; 
and  that  art  is  a  siren  whose  sing- 
ing makes  men  forget  the  reign 
of  law.  Art  treats  religion  as  a 
schoolmaster  who  sets  a  copy-book 
before  the  human  spirit  and  blights 
its  imagination  with  rigid  moral 
maxims ;  and  shrinks  from  science 
as  from  a  hard,  dry,  unsympathe- 
tic maker  of  maps  and  manuals. 
And  it  is  no  small  part  of  the  pre- 
sent training  for  these  great  voca- 
tions, which  some  day  will  be  avo- 
cations as  well,  to  keep  up  these 
imaginary  walls  and  preserve  the 
imaginary  distances  that  are  re- 
garded as  necessary  to  the  integ- 
C  60] 


Christmas   To-Day 

rity  of  these  noble  and  beneficent  The 
interests  and  activities,  in  which  Modern 
the  human  spirit  expresses  itself 
according  to  its  nature;  and  in  all 
of  which,  as  in  a  sublime  trinity,  it 
finds  the  rest  and  strength  of  com- 
plete revelation  and  perfect  ex- 
pression. When  the  day  of  recon- 
ciliation comes,  born  of  knowledge 
that  follows  fast  on  sympathy  and 
walks  with  courage,  it  will  be  seen 
that  what  we  call  conduct  is  not 
a  convention  of  religion,  but  a  fa6l 
of  science  and  a  law  of  art;  that 
achievements  are  measured  by  the 
completeness  of  harmony,  know- 
ledge, and  skill  behind  them ;  that 
knowledge  has  other  instruments 
of  observation  than  the  intellect; 

C  6l  1 


Christmas   To-Day 

The  and  that  beauty  passes  on  into  vi- 
Modern  s\on  onjy  when  spiritual  purity 
keeps  company  with  it.  This  truth 
of  religion  is  also  truth  of  psycho- 
logy, and  must  be  taken  into  ac- 
count in  any  criticism  which  aims 
to  be  fundamental  or  final. 


£62 


XIX 

THE  Christmas  story,  in  this  over-  Provin- 
sophisticated  age,  seems  to  have  ciahsmof 
passed  into  the  keeping  of  children  uPmwn 
and  to  have  become  part  of  the  wis- 
dom of  youth.  Its  tenderness,  sim- 
plicity, and  majesty;  its  childlike 
bringing  together  of  the  shepherds 
and  the  angels ;  of  the  stable,  the 
kings,  and  the  Christ;  its  blending 
of  the  earthly  and  the  heavenly, 
of  the  prose  of  poverty  and  the 
poetry  of  faith,  seem  incredible  on 
the  boulevards  of  Paris,  in  the  cen- 
tral roar  of  London,  amid  the  rush- 
ing tides  of  life  in  New  York.  But 
what  ultimate  question  can  be  an- 
swered in  the  tumultuous  outpour- 
ing of  the  energies  of  the  moment! 

c  63 : 


Christmas   To-Day 

Provm-     Is  there  any  spiritual  provinciality 
aalismoj  so   narrow  and  short-sighted  as 
*  '  that  of  the  great  centres  where 

opinion  has  become  a  social  con- 
vention, and  the  interest  of  the  mo- 
ment is  the  supreme  preoccupation? 
Moral  life  is  nowhere  more  vigor- 
ous than  in  great  cities,  nor  is  reli- 
gious experience  anywhere  deep- 
er ;  but  the  focusing  of  energies  at 
one  point  and  the  pressure  of  fierce 
competition  of  opinion  organized 
on  social  lines,  and  of  the  collec- 
tive sentiment  of  masses  of  men 
and  women  eager  to  drain  the  cup 
of  life  of  the  last  drop  of  pleasure, 
obscure  the  vision  and  make  the 
silence  of  deep  woods,  the  beauty 
of  stars  sleeping  in  lonely  moun- 
64 


Christmas   To-Day 

tain  pools,  the  solitude  of  the  full  Provin- 
stretch  of   sky  from   horizon  to  ciahsmoj 
horizon ,  incredible.  He  who  knows     Pl> 
these  things  can  hardly  make  them 
real  to  himself  in  such  an  alien  at- 
mosphere. So  far  as  the  ultimate  in- 
terests of  the  spirit  are  concerned 
and  their  relations  with  the  uni- 
verse, there  is   no  provincialism 
more  narrow  and  blind  than  that 
of  the  great  centres  of  activity  or 
of  those  who  accept  the  tradition  of 
so-called  experience. 


C  65 


XX 

Age  and  IN  nothing  are  men  more  misled 
Wisdom  t-nan  jn  tne  deference  they  pay  to 
what  is  called  the  wisdom  of  age 
based  on  knowledge  of  life.  To 
age  belongs  the  reverence  due  to 
those  who  have  gone  through  the 
strain  and  stress  and  upon  whom 
the  hand  of  time  rests  heavily,  but 
age  of  itself  has  no  authority;  it 
often  means  mere  piling  up  of  in- 
significant years.  The  value  of  a 
year  depends  on  the  uses  to  which 
it  is  put;  and  a  man  may  count  a 
century  as  his  own,  but  gather  no- 
thing from  his  life  except  a  me- 
mory of  prolonged  insignificance. 
Nor  is  experience  clothed  with  au- 
thority by  reason  of  its  antiquity; 
C  66  J 


Christmas   To-Day 

its  authority  rests  on  its  breadth  Age  and 
and  sanity.  The  so-called  man  of  Wisdom 
the  world  often  assumes  a  wisdom 
which  his  whole  life  has  denied; 
after  refusing  for  long  decades  to 
sit  at  the  feet  of  life  as  a  pupil  he 
declares  himself  a  prophet  because 
his  hair  is  gray.  No  judgement  of 
life  has  authority  unless  it  rests  on 
the  broad  observation  of  a  sane 
man.  Mass  of  experience  is  of  no 
importance ;  the  man  who  repeats 
each  day  the  history  of  the  day  be- 
fore, though  he  live  to  be  a  hun- 
dred, is  a  mere  child  in  knowledge. 
Quality  of  experience  is  the  only 
thing  that  counts;  that  is  to  say, 
clear  knowledge  of  a  large  area 
of  life.  The  so-called  man  of  the 
£67  J 


Christmas   To-Day 

Age  and  world  is  really  a  child  in  know- 
Wisdom  ledge;  he  knows  only  a  narrow 
strip  of  earth,  and  he  is  an  uned- 
ucated observer  even  in  the  little 
acre  on  which  he  has  lived.  Nor 
does  the  long  experience  of  races 
count  unless  it  is  broad  and  sane ; 
for  races,  like  individuals,  some- 
times depart  for  generations  from 
the  highway  of  health  and  sanity 
and  lose  their  power  of  vision. 
What  they  learn  in  these  periods 
of  disease  is  not  the  order  of  life, 
but  the  disorder  in  themselves ;  not 
universal  truth  from  fundamental 
fa<5ls,  but  the  phenomena  of  patho- 
logy. The  so-called  experience  of 
life  to  which  we  bow  as  to  the  wis- 
dom of  age  is  largely  a  diseased 

c  es : 


Christmas   To-Day 

experience  reflecting  a  distorted  Age  and 
image  of  realities.  A  thousand 
years  of  observation  by  sick  or  half- 
sick  observers  adds  nothing  to 
our  knowledge  of  the  order  of 
things,  however  much  it  may  add 
to  our  knowledge  of  disease.  The 
fa6l  that  men  and  women  who 
have  made  living  a  mere  chance 
to  build,  accumulate  or  organize 
pleasure  into  a  profession  are 
agreed  that  the  faith  of  those  who 
live  in  and  by  the  spirit  is  a  de- 
lusion, has  as  little  importance  as 
the  opinion  of  the  negro  preacher 
that  the  sun  goes  round  the  earth. 
It  is  not  enough  to  challenge  every 
man  who  sits  in  judgement  on  life 
with  the  question,  "What  do  you 
C  69  J 


Christmas   To-Day 

Power      know?"  He  must  answer  a  more 
and  Love  searching  question :  "  How  have 
you  lived?" 

As  we  talked  of  these  things  the 
night  wore  on  to  the  parting  hour, 
and  when  it  came,  the  splendour  of 
the  heavens  and  the  purity  of  the 
earth  were  over  and  about  us.  The 
majesty  of  power,  law,  order,  bore 
witness  to  the  fathomless  energy 
streaming  through  star  and  sun, 
and  when  the  door  swung  open  a 
chill  crept  into  the  warmed  and 
lighted  room  that  seemed  to  rise 
out  of  some  bottomless  gulf  of  im- 
personal force.  The  beauty  of  the 
universe  was  beyond  thought ;  the 
greatest  imagination  could  only  set 

c  7°: 


Christmas   To-Day 

the  door  ajar  so  that  a  single  beam  Power 
of  the  blinding  light  might  find  its  and  Love 
way  to  the  soul.  What  was  man  in 
the  presence  of  this  almost  unbear- 
able glory  of  created  things  ?  And 
then,  as  we  said  our  good  nights, 
another  illusion  was  dissolved, — 
the  belief  that  it  is  possible  to  inter- 
pret Nature  apart  from  man ,  to  read 
her  mind  without  his  mind  and  her 
heart  without  his  heart.  He  holds 
the  key  of  her  mystery  in  the  very 
structure  of  his  being;  in  his  intel- 
ligence lies  the  vision  of  her  sub- 
lime unity  and  order.  He  is  as  much 
a  part  of  her  as  star  or  mountain, 
and  he  rises  as  far  above  her  as  the 
thought  which  fashions  rises  above 
the  thing  it  makes,  or  the  genius 

:  71 3 


Christmas   To-Day 

Power  that  divines  above  the  substance  it 
and  Love  penetrates  and  comprehends.  The 
law  of  survival  cannot  be  under- 
stood without  taking  into  account 
man's  power  of  sacrifice,  nor  can 
the  direction  of  the  vast  monument 
of  things  be  comprehended  without 
the  light  of  his  power  of  love.  The 
story  of  his  life  is  as  much  a  part  of 
the  history  of  the  earth  as  the  form- 
ing of  continents  and  the  filling  of 
the  basins  of  the  seas.  Every  hu- 
man affection,  devotion,  and  sacri- 
fice must  be  reckoned  with  in  any 
attempt  to  understand  Nature ;  and 
the  glow  of  the  fire  on  the  hearth 
on  Christmas  Eve  is  as  bright  with 
revelation  of  the  mystery  of  things 
as  the  radiance  of  stars.  Syria  was 

c  72  n 


Christmas   To-Day 

but  the  background  of  the  wonder  Power 
story  of  the  Birth,  and  the  majesty  and  Love 
of  the  star  but  a  symbol  of  the  im- 
mortal light  in  the  soul  of  the 
Child  of  Bethlehem. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


1987 


II     II  I      I  II        I  II     I  II  III  I  "^^ 

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